


bouquet delivery

by kintou



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Oneshot, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Special, flowershop au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 21:22:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17753711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kintou/pseuds/kintou
Summary: Marco gets really disappointed when his long time crush, Jean, buys Valentine's flowers at his flower shop. What he doesn't know is that these Valentine's flowers aren't exactly for Jean's lover.|VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL|





	bouquet delivery

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I like doing specials, so here's a Valentine's Day special! It's mainly very cute, but I wrote it quite fast, so please be kind!

It was busy in the shop. It always was, the day before valentines day. That’s why, as soon as it was a little bit calm, they’d go grab their coffee or lunch. This was one of those moments. The last customer that had been inside had just walked out with a big bouquet of roses is his hand, and I had mumbled a quick and tired ‘coffee’ at Historia. 

Historia had chuckled, and said: ‘Yes please.’  Only then the bell rang. Which was not much of a problem, Historia could handle one customer just fine. That’s why I kept walking towards the kitchen, until Historia called me back. ‘Marco,’ she whispered, ‘It’s the guy you got a thing for.’ 

‘I-I do no-’ 

‘C’mon you guys are always flirting. You go help him, I’ll get coffee.’ 

I sighed, happy that she was leaving me alone about it. ‘Fine.’ 

‘Oh-’ I turned to her in horror, ‘maybe you can ask him on a valentines date.’ 

‘Shut up!’ I whisper-yelled. She quickly ran away to the kitchen, giggling. 

I looked at the man scanning the aisles. She was right. The man would come here every other week, and I thought he was gorgeous. His jawline was strong, his hair ash coloured. He wore a frown, most of the time, but you could see that he wasn’t actually mad or bothered. He looked perfect to me. Except, I didn’t even get his name, but every time we had something to talk about. It was always nice talking to him. He would look at me so softly, and it would make me feel special. 

He always made me laugh. 

‘Can I help you?’ 

The guy looked up, smiled. ‘Yeah..do you guys do deliveries?

‘Yeah, we do. I’ll need your name and number, and then the adres.’  

He nodded, smiled sweetly. ‘It’s Jean. Written like the jeans.’ I nodded. Jean. His name was Jean. It sounded beautiful on him. French. ‘Kirschtein, with c h.’ He told me his number, then the address we wanted to send the bouquet. I wrote it all down very carefully, couldn’t help but wonder for who the flowers were while doing so.

‘What kind of bouquet do you want?’ 

‘Something special? I don’t know man.’ He chuckled awkwardly, kind of lost.

‘We can do special. Shall I customize something for you?’ 

Jean just nodded. 

‘You can get some coffee while waiting, my colleague is making some right now.’ 

‘Oh fuck, I’d love that.’

I yelled through the shop to tell historia that she had to bring an extra cup. 

‘The coffee machine at work was broken, honestly, I feel like I’ve died two times today.’ 

I chuckled. ‘We can’t have that.’ 

‘You’re my hero, man.’  

As soon as Jean had his coffee he sat down on one of the wooden chairs. I took one sip of my coffee and then took my cissors. Jean told me not to hurry. ‘Must have been a rough day,’  he said. 

‘Yeah, it was insane. Glad it’s calmer now.’  

Jean grinned. ‘Me too. Can’t deal with busy places.’ 

‘Cheers to that.’  I took another sip from my coffee. 

I couldn’t help but watch how Jean delightfully closed his eyes when drinking. I watched his Adam’s apple move, blushed when I caught myself doing so. 

‘S-so what kind of colours do you want?’ 

‘Hm, maybe red or pink or something. She likes that kind of stuff.’ 

She. Her. A woman. So he had someone like that. Well, of course. Who the hell buys flowers on valentines day and doesn’t have someone? I just thought.. He seemed like someone who’d be into guys. But that’s my mistake. I shouldn’t have judged him by his cover. Besides, taken is taken, doesn’t matter if it’s by a man or woman.

It just hurts. 

And it shouldn’t hurt that much, with someone I’ve only studied from far away, but still it does.

‘A-alright..’  I grabbed some roses, because those can’t miss in a valentine's day bouquet, and like that I started building up the bouquet. With every flower I hid what I had discovered a bit more. Tried to get over it. It didn’t matter how hurt I got by the girl he loved, I would give her a beautiful bouquet. 

‘I’m busy tomorrow, you know, and I want her to get it on valentines day,’ Jean mumbled.

I bit my lip, nodded.  _ Stop thinking about how nice it would be if someone (no, not someone, Jean) did something like that for you, Marco. _

‘Oh, don’t forget your coffee.’  He held my coffee out for me. 

I took it from him and drank half of the cup at once, then I put the last flowers into the bouquet.  _ ‘ _ What do you think of this?’ 

Jean perked up, practically gleamed. ‘That’s amazing, man. You’re good.’ 

His words fluttered through my stomach.  _ Really have to stop that.  _ ‘It’s nothing special.’

He wrapped his hands around his coffee cup, his fingers beautifully long and a bit boney.  _ ‘ _ She’s going to be so happy.’ 

_ Please Jean, I’m happy for you but you’re literally taking my valentines day hope and stepping on it.   _ ‘I’m glad. What’s her name?’  

‘Therese.’ I wrote it down on the card. Therese. He said it the french way, just like he did with his own name. ‘How much is it?’ 

I looked up at him, got shy right away. ‘It’ll be twenty five dollars, please.’ 

He looked at me, held my eyes. ‘Thanks for the coffee. You literally saved my life.’ 

‘It’s nothing to a be thanked for-’ 

‘No, please let be treat you to some coffee, to return the favour.’ 

I bit my lip. That was a very very bad idea. ‘Sure.’ 

He grinned, took out a piece of paper and wrote his number on it. ‘Text me if you’re free anytime soon.’ 

‘Will do.’  

 

As soon as the door closed behind him I threw the piece of paper in the trash, with my eyes fixated on the pink and red flowers on the counter.

Historia looked at me from around the corner, raised her eyebrows. ‘Marco.. did you just throw the phone number of the guy you like straight into the trash?’  

‘It’s called selfcare.’ 

‘Why is that?’ 

I put my hand on my forehead, frowning. ‘What do you think he was here for?’ 

‘My wild guess is flowers. Could have been coffee, but we  _ are _ a flower shop.’ 

‘Exactly. He was here for Valentine’s day flowers for his girlfriend.’ 

‘He sure doesn’t give off an “I have a girlfriend” vibe.’  

‘Well you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, I guess.’ 

‘Oh Marco. I’m sorry.’ 

‘It’s just a guy I’ve been staring at, Historia. Not someone I’ve loved for years.’ 

‘I don’t get it. He seemed to be flirting with you all the time. What an asshole.’ 

I picked up the empty coffee cups, stared inside of my half full one. ‘He was just being nice.’ 

‘This sucks. I thought you two fit together really well.’ 

 

That morning I woke up with a slight headache. Maybe it was just a little too early to get up. I had to make the shop ready around eight, which meant getting up before seven. Usually I didn’t have that much of a hard time getting up, but I felt like I hadn’t slept. 

I dragged myself out of bed for a first cup of coffee. I made that one with the machine, something I rarely did. I put on a Miles Davis record and opened my window. I’d have to get more energetic if I wanted to survive Valentine's day in the shop. I was really glad that I’d have to do deliveries the first few hours. That way I wouldn’t have to be in the busy shop the entire day. 

I put on a red cosy sweater that made me feel good and Valentine-ish. My hair was looking nice. My freckles were all in their place. I would be fine. I’d survive the day. With that positive thinking I got everything ready in the shop, gathered all the flowers in our old blue minivan, and put on loud Ray Charles in the car. 

Who doesn’t sing along to  _ hit the road jack _ in their car? It’s physically impossible. I went right, went left. ‘ _ Don’t you come back no more, no more, no more.’   _ drove straight for quite a while, stopped for a red light, went left again. ‘ _ Hit the road jack, and don’t you come back no more.’  _ I got out of the car, handed a bouquet to a girl who was basically in tears, laughed with her, got back in. ‘ _ I got a woman, way over town.’  _ And again. Through the city, stopping for red lights, singing loudly. ‘ _ Who’s good to me.’  _ Sang, drove. Drove, sang. I was doing so good that I didn’t notice that the last bouquet was the only one left; and it was Jean’s bouquet. 

Suddenly the music was gone. My need to sing was gone. I felt nothing but nervous. 

I got out of the car slowly. Step by step I walked closer to the door. I didn’t want to hand over these flowers. I didn’t want to see Jean’s lover.

At the door there was only a name plate saying: ‘Kirschtein’. My heart sank into my shoes. That made everything even worse; that meant that Jean was married. Actually, seriously, very married. I had thought he was too young for that, or maybe not the type.

Still, with panic in my gut about seeing who he had chosen, I rang the bell. It played an happy riddle. I held the flowers tightly, heard footsteps coming towards the door. The footsteps were slow. 

_ Breath in.  _

_ Breath out.  _

_ Act normal.  _

The door opened. An older woman, looking like she was in her fifties, opened the door. She smiled brightly. ‘Oh my..’  she mumbled. 

‘Happy Valentines day!’

‘Happy Valentines day, darling.’ She sounded soft, sweet. It made my nervousness go away a little.

‘I’m looking for Therese.’ 

_ Please say she’s not home, please say you’ll hand these to her, please- _

_ ‘ _ That would be me, sweetheart, Therese Kirschtein.’ 

‘Oh..’ Eh? What? ‘I’m sorry, I expected Jean’s lover.. Excuse me for the misunderstanding.’  

‘No problem. Do you know that son of mine?’  

So she was his mother. A wave of light went through me. ‘A little.’ 

‘That boy, he likes boys, you know. He wouldn’t have a lover named Theresa.’  She chuckled. ‘I just tell everyone, gets misunderstandings out of the way.’ 

‘That’s amazing.’ 

‘It’s nothing but normal. That boy, he takes good care of me. Ever since my husband passed away, he gives me these big bouquets every valentines day.’ My heart fluttered. He really was amazing. ‘I knew he was busy. I hadn’t expected any flowers to come today.. So I’m glad to see you here.’  

‘Me too..’

‘But you can’t have me keeping you with my stories, you must have a lot of deliveries to do.’’

I really, really didn’t mind hearing stories about Jean from his mum. ‘This was the last one. Not a lot of people choose delivery.’ 

‘Then, would you perhaps care for a cup of coffee?’  

I smiled, genuinely. ‘I would really like that, Mrs Kirschtein.’ 

 

Valentines day was busy, but we survived. We closed up a little later, and then I went home and had some pasta. The next morning I woke up reborn. I felt a lot better than the day before. I put on my soft slippers, made some fresh coffee, baked myself some scrambled eggs, got myself some juice, read an column in the newspaper. I felt fine. 

 

I opened the shop at nine. It was calm. No one got flowers at nine in the morning. I started moving around bouquets, then I started making some small ready made bouquet, people liked buying those as a present. I got out the golden daisy’s, put some leafs behind it. I had just started tying those together when the bell rang. 

‘Good morning!’  I called, finishing up. 

‘Good morning,’  a deep voice replied. I let go of the bouquet, looked up. Jean. ‘Hey.’  

‘Hi, Jean.’  

‘You know, this is actually really unfair, you haven’t even introduced yourself to me, Marco.’ 

I pulled up my eyebrows. He jokingly offered his hand, I took it.

‘I’m Marco..’  I mumbled. ‘How do you know my name?’  

‘Little bird told yesterday.’ He smirked. He looked handsome like that. 

‘Is this little bird maybe your mum?’ 

‘Can’t believe you had coffee with my mum before you had coffee with me.’ 

I smiled, felt blood rush to my face. ‘Yeah, somehow that happened.’  

He casually leaned against the counter. ‘She wouldn’t shut up about how nice you are. I think she’d in love with you.’

I chuckled. ‘Well, she  _ is  _ a beautiful woman.’  

‘Wow, excuse you, what the hell do you mean by that?’  

I laughed. ‘Nothing.’ I looked at him. He was frowning, but there was still a smile on his face. He couldn’t possibly hide that smile ‘It’s just that she kind of looks like you.’ 

Jean’s face fell, surprised. ‘Oh-’  

I stopped laughing. ‘I mean- eh- shit.’  

‘You think I’m beautiful?’  

‘No.. I mean- That’s- well you don’t-  well, I guess you look good.’ 

He grinned, put his elbows on the counter, and looked at me with full puppy eyes. ‘Yeah?’  

‘Y-yeah.’  

He grinned. 

‘Stop that.’ 

‘I’m just happy..’ He looked at some random flowers, stared at those. ‘Do you want to have coffee with me when you finish?’ 

I bit my lip. ‘I really do.’ 

‘G-good.’ He stood up straight again. ‘Anyway.. You’ve got my number, text me when you finish.’  

‘Oh-’  Could I really say it? Throwing his number away was such a weird move, maybe an excuse, the half truth was better. ‘I lost your number..’  

‘You lost it? Ouch- I thought you cared.’  He joked. 

I looked at the tips of my brown leather shoes. ‘Well- I- I, actually, I threw it away. Because I thought that the flowers were for your wife.. and I was a little hurt- so- oh my god this is embarrassing.’ 

But when I looked up, Jean was gleaming. ‘You thought that I had a wife?’  

‘Y-Yeah..’ 

‘Marco.. I’ve been trying to flirt with you since forever and you thought I had a wife?’  

‘Uhu..’  

‘Just when I finally dared to ask you out for coffee..you just-’  

I hid my face with my hands, blushing bright red. ‘Don’t make it worse, please.’  

He laughed. He laughed loudly and brightly. ‘Oh my god.. No wonder you were so cold yesterday.’  He snorted. ‘Holyshit.’ 

‘Jean,’ I complained. 

He came up to me and pulled my hands away from my face so he could look at me. He held my hands tightly, but soft at the same time. ‘I’m so glad..’  he whispered. He pulled my hand up to his face, put it against his forehead. His face was completely red as well. ‘I’m so glad you care.’ 

‘I’m glad you don’t have a wife.’ 

Jean looked up, put one of my hands against his lips. ‘I’m glad my mum likes you.’  

‘Mama’s boy,’ I mumbled. 

‘Definitely.’ He let go of me and put his hand around my cheek and jawline. ‘I’m sorry for ruining your Valentine’s day.’ 

I leaned in a little. ‘Yeah, how are you going to make up for it?’ 

‘I guess I could kiss you?’  

‘You guess..’ 

‘You want?’  

I smirked, rolled my eyes, then pressed my lips against his. We were both leaning over the counter, holding each other’s faces. The first kiss was very soft. The second one deepened quickly. His tongue softly touched my lip, then my tongue. I traveled my hands through his hair, stroked his ear. Our noses bumped together a few times. I could feel him smiling against my lips.

When we pulled back we kept our noses together for a while. I looked into his eyes, he stared right back. 

The bell of the shop rang. 

Jean and I quickly moved away from each other. Looked at the door. 

Historia stood in the middle of the room, didn’t move, her mouth was hanging open. ‘I thought Jean had a wife?’ 

Jean stuttered. ‘That- The flowers were for my mum.’  

‘Oh, in that case, keep going, I’ll start working.’  

Jean looked at her in horror. I burst out laughing, pulled his face closer to mine and kissed his cheek softly. ‘I’m so glad.’ 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that made your Valentine's Day a little more fun.  
> Comments are sweet.
> 
> You can see updates on my work on my Tumblr: @snk-words  
> & you can see me on Instagram: @theekom


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